The NWSL Is Back! Well, It Was. And It Was Fun! (NWSL Challenge Cup, Utah 2020)

The eighth NWSL season came and went between two issues of She Kicks, converted into a month-long Challenge Cup with every team housed in a bubble in Utah and accommodation provided by Royals owner Dell Loy Hansen. Orlando Pride withdrew days before the start after positive tests, leaving eight teams. This picture-led survey takes in the good and the bad: a championship game watched by 653,000 on CBS and streamed worldwide on Twitch, the highest audience in league history; anterior cruciate ligament injuries to Ally Watt and Bella Bixby; and the mental strain of players confined to a hotel when not training or playing. It also finds room for the goalkeepers who seized their chance, Britt Eckerstrom among them, the playground beside Zions Bank Stadium, and the quarter-finals that yielded a single goal between them.